Protective gown



Nov. 23, 1965 RICTER 3,218,649

PROTECTIVE GOWN Filed Oct. 14, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

. E. L. RICTER Nov. 23, 1965 PROTECTIVE GOWN 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct.14, 1963 Esfher L. lil'cfer INVENTOR.

and

Nov. 23, 1965 E. L. RICTER PROTECTIVE GOWN ZS Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct.14, 1963 Fig. 9

Esther L. Ricter INVENTOR. 05k.

M Mm United States Patent C) 3,218,649 PROTECTIVE GOWN Esther L. Ricter,1200 4th St. NW., Rochester, Minn. Filed Oct. 14, 1963, Ser. No. 315,7681 Claim. (Cl. 2-114) The present invention generally relates to agarment and more particularly a protective gown or garment especiallyadapted for use by hospital and clinic personnel in preventing thetransfer of infectious material from one patient to another and also toprotect personnel who in any way may come into contact with infectedpersons or objects employed in the care of a patient.

Of course, present day hospital and clinic practice requires the use ofgowns of a protective nature but it generally has been found that suchgowns do not afford adequate and absolute protection. This is especiallytrue in connection with certain types of germs that have becomeresistant to known antibiotics such as Staphylococci aureus and othertypes of staphylococci as well as other types of germs. The existence ofsuch type germs requires better protection for both the hospitalpersonnel and other patients. The presence of such germs is extremelydiflicult to determine and some patients arrive at the hospital withgerms and they become potential menaces to all persons in the hospitaland the present protective gown is primarily constructed for protectionnot only to the wearer of the gown but also protection for otherpatients or personnel of the hospital in that it will preclude thetransfer of such germs from one infected person to another patient.

In certain instances, the present invention may be employed to protect apatient directly such as in the case of a premature infant. Also, it canbe worn by patients when they are taken out of their rooms for specialtests to protect other patients and the personnel of the hospital duringsuch tests and this is especially useful for patients who are inisolation because of their particular disease or the like.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective gownconstructed of a material having a structure which enables it to becompletely protective of the wearers clothing and constructed soinexpensively that it can be readily disposable to eliminate transfer ofinfection or contamination and at the same time save on laundryexpenses. Thus, the gown of the present invention may be constructed ofplastic, waterproof or water repellant paper or other similar materialssufiiciently inexpensive to enable the devices to be economicallydisposed of. Presently available gowns are usually made of percaleswhich have openings between the threads which readily admit bacteria andalso which readily become wet thus facilitating the passage of bacteria.For example, if during the care of an isolated patient, just a smallamount of liquid such as bath water comes in contact with the gown, itis not an effective device because it is not waterproof. The presentgown works as a sponge and will infect the wearers clothing underneath.While this may be so slight as to be unnoticeable to even the wearer, itcan still be a means for carrying long lived staphylococci to asusceptible person. The protective gown of the present invention due toits particular waterproofed or water repellant construction willeliminate this possible source of contamination or transfer.

Also, gowns of present construction do not have an adequate lap in theback to completely protect the wearers clothing. In present daypractice, it theoretically is desirable not to allow the back of thegown to become contaminated but this is substantially impossible inactual practice since it is impossible to control everything the patientwill do. Emergencies may arise and there "ice really is no safe area ona gown that will not become contaminated. Accordingly, it is anotherobject of the invention'to provide an adequate back lap area for thegown.

The gown of the present invention is to be made in three sizes to fittall, medium and short persons with the sleeves being roomy enough toallow for a suit coat underneath. All three sizes are adjustable to theshoulder and Waist measurement of any person. Further, the protectivegown of the present invention is made with a pocket across the bottomwhich will hold any liquid that can spill onto the gown during the timethe wearer has it on thus protecting the shoes of the wearer which mayalso transfer infectious germs. The body of the gown is constructed ofone piece with the sleeves being set into the gown and joined from thewrist to the neck. Of course, the sleeve and body designs of the gownmay vary.

Adjustment of the gown to the wearers size is accomplished by two tieswhich makes it possible to adjust the fit properly to any size. A tie isattached to the shoulder of each back flap and when the back flaps arebrought into place, the ties are taken over the shoulders to the frontof the gown. The wearer then takes the ties and brings them up under thearms, crosses them in back at the waist and brings them to the front totie. If desired, the ties can be brought to the back and tied at thewaist and the ties hold the gown securely in place during any activitythe wearer may need to engage in. In removing the disposable gown, theties can be untied, brought to the front of the gown and with one firmpull be removed from the shoulders of the gown thus enabling the wearerto remove the gown without any danger of contaminating his or herclothing.

A further important object of the present invention is to provide aprotective gown which will not only protect the body of the wearer andthe clothes but also the forearms which is an area that frequentlybecomes infected. This is accomplished by wrist fastener assemblies plusthe use of conventional plastic or rubber gloves thus making acompletely waterproof covering for the arms and hands thereby making itpossible to give a patient a bath or other care without danger to theperson administering the care.

These together with other objects and advantages which will becomesubsequently apparent reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, whereinlike numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a prespective view of the protective gown of the presentinvention;

FIGURE 2 is a rear perspective view of the gown illustrating an initialstep in the donning thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a rear perspective view illustrating a second step in thedonning thereof;

FIGURE 4 is a front perspective view illustrating the manner in whichthe tie straps are brought forwardly and and downwardly and disposedrearwardly behind the wearer;

FIGURE 5 illustrates in front perspective view the manner in which thetie straps are manipulated in the rear to cross the straps;

FIGURE 6 is a rear prespective view illustrating the manner in which thetie straps are crossed in the rear;

FIGURE 7 is a front perspective view illustrating the manner in whichthe tie straps have been secured;

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view illustrating the manner in which thewrists of the sleeves are secured in snug relation to the wrists of awearer either with or without rubber or plastic gloves thereon by usingan adhesive type of tape;

FIGURE 9 is a sectional view taken substantially upon a plane passingalong section line 9-9 of FIGURE 8 illustrating the manner in which thetape is secured to the wrist of the sleeve;

FIGURE 10 is a plane view illustrating the assembly of the sleeve withthe body of the garment;

FIGURE 11 is a detail sectional view taken substantially upon a planepassing along section line 1111 of FIG- URE 4 illustrating the bottompocket structure across the gown;

FIGURE 12 is a detail sectional view taken substantially upon a planepassing along section line 12-12 of FIGURE 4 illustrating furtherstructural details of the pocket;

FIGURE 13 is a perspective view of a modified form of inventionemploying adhesive tape fastening means for securing the gown in place.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, the protective gown 10 ofthe present invention includes an enlarged main body 12 including afront portion 14, a left rear portion 16 and a right rear portion 18. Aneck opening 20 is formed in the upper end of the main body 12 andsleeves 22 are also attached to the upper end of the garment in a mannerdescribed hereinafter. The protective gown is constructed of variouswaterproof or water repellant material such as plastic, water repellantcloth or paper and is constructed of relatively inexpensive materialwhich enables the device to be disposed of when desired, or after oneuse thereby rendering the device economically feasible for this purpose.

Attached to the upper edge of the free edge portion of the left backpanel 16 is an elongated flexible tie strap 24 and attached to the upperedge of the right back panel 12 is a similar tie strap 26. The ends ofthe straps 24 may be folded upwardly alongside of each other and held inplace by a short strip of adhesive tape such as masking tape 28 or thelike to prevent the tie straps from engaging the floor surface whenputting the garment on.

A gown is placed on the front as illustrated in FIGURE 2 with the arms30 being placed in the sleeves 22 and the right'rear panel 18 is pulledacross the back by virtue of the tie strap 26. The left rear panel 16 isthen pulled into overlapping relation to the right rear panel 18 virtueof the tie strap 24. These two procedures are illustrated in FIGURES 2and 3 respectively with these two figures illustrating that the overlapin the rear extends substantially completely across the rear of thewearer. The tie straps 24 and 26 are then brought down in front of theshoulders and grasped by the hands as illustrated in FIGURE 4 and aremoved rearwardly in a downwardly inclined manner so that the straps 24and 26 pass snugly under the armpits and downwardly along the chestcavity as illustrated in FIGURE 5. The tie straps are then crossed atthe rear as indicated by numeral 32 and are brought forwardly around thewaist and tied into a suitable knot as at 34 with these two steps beingillustrated in FIGURES 6 and 7 respectively. FIGURE 7 illustrates themanner in which the protective gown is worn. It is pointed out thatsuitable protective gloves are employed while donning the garment andsuch protective gloves may be sterile and may also be disposable.Inasmuch as the protective gown is also sterile when donned, the glovesmay not be employed while putting the garment on if they interfere withthe dexterity since the gloves may be put on the hands afterwards sincethe wrist portions of the sleeves 22 are relatively large.

Across the bottom of the front portion 14 of the gown, there is provideda pocket 36 defined by an upwardly folded lower edge portion 38 of thefront portion 14 along a bottom fold line 40. The panel 38 actually isan extension that is reversely folded upwardly and the side edgesthereof are turned inwardly and stitched as at 42 to the front portion14 at the side areas thereof thereby forming a liquid catching pocketfor the protective gown which will protect the shoes and feet 44 of thewearer from contamination with any liquids which may drop down the frontof the protective gown.

The wrist portion of each sleeve 22 has a seam 46 along the top edgethereof and a length of adhesive tape 48, masking tape or an equivalent,has one end thereof adhesively bonded to the wrist portion of the sleeve22 at one side of the seam. By employing the tape, the wrist portion ofthe sleeve 22 may be brought into snug engagement with the wrist 50 ofthe wearer as illustrated in FIGURE 8. The tape may be the type having aprotective Glassene material thereon to protect the adhesive qualitiesthereof until it is used thus requiring that this be stripped first.Thus, protective gloves may be placed on the wearer and the adhesivetape members 48 then employed for snugly embracing the wrist portion ofthe sleeve 22 with the gloves thereby providing a complete protectivecovering for the person wearing the gown of the present invention.

The figures of the drawings illustrate the sequential steps employed inapplying the garment and it is pointed out that the wide lap affordscomplete protection to the wearers back and also allows for adjustmentof fit to accommodate people of various sizes. At all times when thegarment is being placed on the wearer, the tie straps should not touchthe floor and that is the reason for the tie straps being doubled backand attached to each other with suitable tape as illustrated inFIGURE 1. If desired, the ties may be tied at the back rather than atthe front as this is optional with the wearer and in some instances, itmay be desirable that the tie knot 34 be at the rear instead of at thefront. This provides a comfortable fit for the person and also providesroomy sleeves to enable the person to reach to the extent of the lengthof the arms and the gown being constructed of relatively lightweightmaterial will not materially affect the operation of the person usingthe device.

In removing the garment, the ties are untied and brought to the frontand then with a firm pull may be detached from the shoulders. Thedetachable connection may be provided by using an adhesive bond for thetie straps to the shoulders or a threaded connection of a relativelyWeak construction which will enable the tie straps to be readilydetached from the shoulders thus enabling the gown to be easily slippedoff in a forward manner without contaminating the wearers clothing inany way whatsoever which would be a danger if the tie straps wereattached and flapping loosely.

Also, the surgical gloves may be placed over the top of the wristportion of the sleeve especially where such rubber gloves or plasticgloves have wrist portions which snugly engage the wrists. Sometimesduring a surgical procedure, a sleeve of a gown may accidentally bepulled out of the glove. The wrist fasteners of the present inventionprevent this thus preventing contamination to the patient in thismanner. Often during surgery, it becomes necessary to replace a sterileglove due to damage by cutting or the like. Inasmuch as the glove fitsover the sleeve with a taped wrist fastener, it would make replacing aglove easier and prevent possible contamination of a patient.

The pocket at the bottom of the gown will protect against contaminationto the wearers stockings, shoes and the floor and when a wearer leavesthe room, he would not carry infectious material on his stockings orshoes to other personnel or patient. In certain instances, such asvisiting doctors observing surgery or in laboratory situations, the gownmay be made without a pocket at the bottom as there would be no need forit.

When there is no personal contact with an infectious patient or materialin some uses, the protective gowns may have air vents under the arms andin the back for the comfort of the wearer. With this feature, theprotective gown may be employed to even sit down in a patients room andnot have the wearers clothing become contaminated.

Also, the protective gown may be made of radioactive repellant materialwhich would be comfortable and allow for easy body movement of thewearer. If used for this purpose, in addition to the gown, a protectivecovering for the head, hands and feet would be necessary to effectivelyprotect from radioactivity.

Where absolute sterilization is necessary, tapes can be placed on theback flaps with the advantage of having them on the back flaps enablingthe wearer to tape them into place at each shoulder without assistance.This assembly is illustrated in FIGURE 13 in which the tapes are shownfastened to the front of the shoulders so that sterility will bemaintained. In other words, the tapes may be employed either on thefront of the shoulders or on the back flaps depending upon the degree ofsterility to be maintained. When the tapes 54 are attached to the frontshoulders, it requires that a second person assist in placing thegarment on the wearer. Also, tapes 56 may be employed for the back ofthe garment to retain the rear flaps or panels in overlying relation.Each of the tapes will have a protective paper thereon which will beremoved when the wearer is ready to have the garment or gown placed inposition. This eliminates tight belts or ties that become too snug attimes especially during long surgery or the like and also allows formore ventilation which is necessary when moisture-proof or repellantmaterial is used inasmuch as the tie straps tend to reduce aircirculation at least vertically. If the tapes are attached to the backflaps, the person wearing the garment may don it without any assistancewhatever but absolute sterilization thereof may not be maintained thensince it is usually necessary to contact the garment with certain partsof the hands.

For some uses, protective gowns could be made with short sleevesdepending upon the degree of protection and sterility desired. By makingthe gowns disposable and inexpensive enough so that hospitals, clinics,diagnostic laboratories, teaching laboratories can afford to use them,it will give protection by the means of disposing of harmful germsinstead of passing them on to others. As illustrated in FIGURE 13, thesterile gowns may be used for surgery with the ties at the shoulders'being short and fastened on to the front of the shoulder with the smallties being made out of tape a part of which would be fastened when thegown is made. The unsterile nurse in surgery would slip off theprotective paper on the tape and tape the back flaps into place with itfor the wearer. This is for the comfort for most people in surgery whodo not like belts at the waist so either small ties that would hold theflaps together in back or a piece of tape that would hold the flapstogether in back would suffice.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles ofthe invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes willreadily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limitthe invention to the exact construction and operation shown anddescribed, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalentsmay 'be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention asclaimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A protective gown for use by hospital personnel constructed ofdisposable material to prevent transfer of infectious material from onepatient to another comprising an elongated front panel having upper andside edges and adapted to extend from the neck region to a positionadjacent the ankle area of a wearer, a left rear panel and a right rearpanel each having upper and side edges and each having one side edgethereof connected with a side edge of said front panel and beingcoextensive therewith and having an upper edge portion connected to aportion of the front panel upper edge defining a neck opening, the leftand right rear panels each having a remaining upper edge portion and alongitudinal edge intersecting to form a free upper corner with saidright and left panels adapted to be disposed in overlapping relation tocompletely cover the rear portion of a wearer and enabling adjustment asto circumferential size of the gown, flexible tie straps having a lengthsubstantially equal to that of said gown connected to the upper freecorners of the left and right rear panels, said corners adapted toextend over opposite upper edges with said straps adapted to extend downalong the front surface of the front panel and rearwardly to a crossedposition at the rear of the gown, and forwardly to a tied position atthe front panel when said gown is worn, said govwl having sleevesattached thereto for receiving the arms of the wearer, said sleeveshaving a large circumferential dimension for unrestricted movement ofthe arms, an adhesive tape strap connected to the wrist portion of thesleeves for snugging the wrist portion around the wrist of a wearer,said tie straps being secured to the free corners of the rear panels bya strippable adhesive bond so that normal forces exerted thereon whentying the tie straps and performing normal hospital functions will leavethe tie straps assembled but excessive forces exerted thereon such as bya deliberate jerk on the tie straps will detach the tie straps at saidbond from the free upper corners of the rear panels thereby enabling thegown to be simultaneously turned inside out and slid over the arms.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 895,510 8/1808Snellenburg 21 14 1,489,046 4/1924 Thompson 2114 2,172,162 9/ 1939Gillettee 2-49 2,425,402 8/1947 Sieloff 275 2,473,740 6/ 1949 Welch 2482,668,294 2/1954 Gilpin 2-114 2,686,914 8/1954 Weiser 2114 2,807,0229/1957 Bonanni 2'1 14 2,902,734 9/1959 Walters.

3,156,927 11/1964 Grimm et a1 21 14 X FOREIGN PATENTS 335,317 9/1930Great Britain.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

